It very hard to answer your question and much of it is very subjective and personal taste. I have mint 13 cinnamon on one machine, LMDE Mate on another and Mint 14 KDE on the laptop all work well for me and the hardware I'm using. there are always a few bumps but they can easily be overcome and this forum is a great place to get help if needed.

Try them all via live cd (remembering live cd's don't run as fast as installed ones) and see which one suits your fancy /work load / works best with your hardware. Happy computing.